May Day, May Day!
Mobilizations Planned in Over 1,000 events in all 50 States as Workers Demand Justice
By Maria Peralta
This Thursday, on May Day, also known as International Workers Day, workers and allies across the country will take to the streets to challenge Trump’s anti-worker and anti-immigrant agenda and demand a country that puts working families before billionaires.
The mobilizations—over 1,000 events in 851 cities, supported by hundreds of national, state and local organizations including the AFL-CIO, the National Education Association, the Working Families Party, and the 50501 network—come in the wake of the Trump administration’s mass firings of federal workers, stripping of collective bargaining rights across the federal government, and hobbling of federal agencies that exist to protect the rights of workers, including the National Labor Relations Board and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
“The whole point is to create a giant force field of solidarity where we stand up to the bully, Trump, and demand a country where all people have their needs met,” said Stacy Davis Gates, President of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), a lead organizer of the May Day events. “Billionaires are taking 15-minute rides into space while we have a school system with more than twenty thousand unhoused students. Trump is the symptom; he’s emblematic of the one percent trying to get it all while everyone else is figuring out how to make ends meet.”
Since taking office, Trump has ordered the dismantling of the Department of Education, which provides special education grants and other resources to schools across the country, and has issued dozens of executive orders seeking more control of public school districts and curriculum. “The moment is calling all of us, labor, community, all stakeholders to come together now to demand an end to the injustices against workers, students, immigrants, women, LGBTQ and [to] build a movement that will sustain us,” added Gates. “We can’t wait until the next election. We’ve got to do it now.”
May Day events will also underscore solidarity with immigrant families under attack by Trump. Without due process and absent criminal charges, ICE continues to disappear U.S. residents, including graduate students Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Oztürk, Kilmar Abrego Garcia—wrongfully deported to an El Salvador gulag-style prison—and hundreds of others unlawfully targeted. This past week, ICE deported three children, ages 2, 4 and 7, who are US citizens.
“Disappearing mothers and toddlers, denying them access to lawyers, and deporting them without due process goes against everything our country claims to stand for,” said Vanessa Cardenas, executive director of America’s Voice, a national immigrants’ rights organization. “May Day will be another opportunity for people of all political backgrounds who care about our democracy to stand with immigrants and demand an immediate end to this cruelty.”
Celebrated globally, International Workers Day in the US has its origins in late 19th century Chicago, where workers sacrificed their lives to win an eight-hour work day. The events on Thursday will be not only a strong rebuke of Trump’s first 100 days of office, but also the culmination of months of growing resistance, nationwide protests and actions against the administration. Disregard for due process and the rule of law, gross incompetence in managing domestic and military affairs, decisions to tax Americans through scattershot import tariffs, DOGE cuts affecting Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare: the spurs to action go on and on.
Cracks have been deepening in the façade of what Trump has called his “mandate.” As he closes in on the end of his first three months in office, his approval ratings have dropped and recent polling shows Americans’ confidence in Trump’s handling of the economy has plummeted to record lows. Last week, both Republican and Democratic judges ruled against Trump in a myriad of lawsuits challenging the Administration’s moves on a myriad of issues including immigration and attempts to suppress the vote. A federal judge on Friday blocked Trump’s order ending collective bargaining for federal employees across dozens of agencies, calling it “unlawful.”
There has never been a better time to make your voice heard. For more information about May Actions and how to find a march near you, go to maydaystrong.org.
Maria Peralta is a strategic campaigns consultant with over 25 years of leadership experience in progressive politics, labor organizing, voting rights and democracy. Most recently, Maria served as National Political Director for the Service Employees International Union.
"If you see something, say something!" Well, we've seen plenty, and will be shouting it out in protest rallies all over the country, tomorrow - May Day. Find one in your area - join us if you can.
I, too, will be joining in tomorrow's May Day protests and hope that thousands of others will do so as well.
However, I must note that tomorrow is also Law Day and, while the author mentions this "administration's" disregard for due process and the rule of law, she fails to mention the additional demonstrations lawyers will be holding tomorrow to protest the ongoing assault by this regime against the rule of law on multiple fronts, including its incessant attacks on all of our rights (the right to due process among them), our judicial system and individual judges, as well as the blatant politicization of the Justice Department by AG Pam Bondi.
In NYC, lawyers will be showing up at Foley Square from 1-2 pm to protest this regime's ongoing assault on the rule of law (and I hope that many others will join us!). Many more will be joining in the other May Day protests around the country. In NYC, those protests will be held at Foley Square from 5-7 pm.